Africa
Weak Labeling for Cropland Mapping in Africa
Hacheme, Gilles Quentin, Zaytar, Akram, Tadesse, Girmaw Abebe, Robinson, Caleb, Dodhia, Rahul, Ferres, Juan M. Lavista, Wood, Stephen
If the goal is to achieve better results in specific regions, models Cropland mapping can play a vital role in addressing environmental, that are tailored to those regions usually perform better than agricultural, and food security challenges. However, models that are designed for the whole world. in the context of Africa, practical applications are often hindered To this end, we develop a modeling workflow for generating by the limited availability of high-resolution cropland high-resolution cropland maps that are tailored toward a maps. Such maps typically require extensive human labeling, given area of interest (AOI), using Kenya as a use case. We use thereby creating a scalability bottleneck. To address this, we a deep learning based semantic segmentation workflow - an approach propose an approach that utilizes unsupervised object clustering often employed for land-cover maps [9, 10, 11, 12, 13]. to refine existing weak labels, such as those obtained In order to train the models, we used a mixture of sparse human from global cropland maps. The refined labels, in conjunction labels gathered in the AOI and weak labels from global with sparse human annotations, serve as training data for a cropland maps. Specifically we use the area of intersection semantic segmentation network designed to identify cropland between an unsupervised object based clustering of the input areas. We conduct experiments to demonstrate the benefits of satellite imagery and the weak labels to mine stronger cropland the improved weak labels generated by our method. In a scenario (positive class) and non-cropland (negative class) samples (see where we train our model with only 33 human-annotated Figure 1 for an overview of this approach).
CARAT: Contrastive Feature Reconstruction and Aggregation for Multi-Modal Multi-Label Emotion Recognition
Peng, Cheng, Chen, Ke, Shou, Lidan, Chen, Gang
Multi-modal multi-label emotion recognition (MMER) aims to identify relevant emotions from multiple modalities. The challenge of MMER is how to effectively capture discriminative features for multiple labels from heterogeneous data. Recent studies are mainly devoted to exploring various fusion strategies to integrate multi-modal information into a unified representation for all labels. However, such a learning scheme not only overlooks the specificity of each modality but also fails to capture individual discriminative features for different labels. Moreover, dependencies of labels and modalities cannot be effectively modeled. To address these issues, this paper presents ContrAstive feature Reconstruction and AggregaTion (CARAT) for the MMER task. Specifically, we devise a reconstruction-based fusion mechanism to better model fine-grained modality-to-label dependencies by contrastively learning modal-separated and label-specific features. To further exploit the modality complementarity, we introduce a shuffle-based aggregation strategy to enrich co-occurrence collaboration among labels. Experiments on two benchmark datasets CMU-MOSEI and M3ED demonstrate the effectiveness of CARAT over state-of-the-art methods. Code is available at https://github.com/chengzju/CARAT.
Cheap drone attacks have outsized effect on global economic inflation
Attacks on container ships in the Red Sea have forced hundreds of ships carrying billions of dollars' worth of cargo to avoid the region and the shortcut to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, resulting in global increases in inflation and carbon emissions – and much of this disruption comes down to mass-produced, explosive drones made for relatively low cost.
The Expansive Musical Range of Ryuichi Sakamoto
If your first thought, as we ushered in the New Year, was not of fresh starts and resolutions but of the crises looming in 2024 and beyond, the best antidote, culturally speaking, might be to lean into catastrophe. Metrograph has catered to the pessimists among us by curating a series entitled "The Future Looks Bright from Afar" (through Feb. 4), which promises a suite of sci-fi films marked by "grim prognostications" about mankind's trajectory. As it happens, the great new crowd-pleaser of the moment is also a disaster story, albeit one set firmly in the past. "Godzilla Minus One" follows a kamikaze pilot who shirks his duty in the final days of the Second World War--a decision that puts him in the path of the eponymous monster and, years later, leaves him uniquely motivated to stop its rampage through postwar Tokyo. Elevated by emotional and historical specificity as well as set pieces that belie its modest fifteen-million-dollar budget, Takashi Yamazaki's contribution to the Godzilla canon is simultaneously a study in survivor's guilt and a "Jaws"-style blockbuster, complete with the revelation that our protagonists are going to need a bigger boat.
Uncertainty quantification for probabilistic machine learning in earth observation using conformal prediction
Singh, Geethen, Moncrieff, Glenn, Venter, Zander, Cawse-Nicholson, Kerry, Slingsby, Jasper, Robinson, Tamara B
Unreliable predictions can occur when using artificial intelligence (AI) systems with negative consequences for downstream applications, particularly when employed for decision-making. Conformal prediction provides a model-agnostic framework for uncertainty quantification that can be applied to any dataset, irrespective of its distribution, post hoc. In contrast to other pixel-level uncertainty quantification methods, conformal prediction operates without requiring access to the underlying model and training dataset, concurrently offering statistically valid and informative prediction regions, all while maintaining computational efficiency. In response to the increased need to report uncertainty alongside point predictions, we bring attention to the promise of conformal prediction within the domain of Earth Observation (EO) applications. To accomplish this, we assess the current state of uncertainty quantification in the EO domain and found that only 20% of the reviewed Google Earth Engine (GEE) datasets incorporated a degree of uncertainty information, with unreliable methods prevalent. Next, we introduce modules that seamlessly integrate into existing GEE predictive modelling workflows and demonstrate the application of these tools for datasets spanning local to global scales, including the Dynamic World and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) datasets. These case studies encompass regression and classification tasks, featuring both traditional and deep learning-based workflows. Subsequently, we discuss the opportunities arising from the use of conformal prediction in EO. We anticipate that the increased availability of easy-to-use implementations of conformal predictors, such as those provided here, will drive wider adoption of rigorous uncertainty quantification in EO, thereby enhancing the reliability of uses such as operational monitoring and decision making.
Fully Automated Tumor Segmentation for Brain MRI data using Multiplanner UNet
Pandey, Sumit, Changdar, Satyasaran, Perslev, Mathias, Dam, Erik B
Automated segmentation of distinct tumor regions is critical for accurate diagnosis and treatment planning in pediatric brain tumors. This study evaluates the efficacy of the Multi-Planner U-Net (MPUnet) approach in segmenting different tumor subregions across three challenging datasets: Pediatrics Tumor Challenge (PED), Brain Metastasis Challenge (MET), and Sub-Sahara-Africa Adult Glioma (SSA). These datasets represent diverse scenarios and anatomical variations, making them suitable for assessing the robustness and generalization capabilities of the MPUnet model. By utilizing multi-planar information, the MPUnet architecture aims to enhance segmentation accuracy. Our results show varying performance levels across the evaluated challenges, with the tumor core (TC) class demonstrating relatively higher segmentation accuracy. However, variability is observed in the segmentation of other classes, such as the edema and enhancing tumor (ET) regions. These findings emphasize the complexity of brain tumor segmentation and highlight the potential for further refinement of the MPUnet approach and inclusion of MRI more data and preprocessing.
MiTTenS: A Dataset for Evaluating Misgendering in Translation
Robinson, Kevin, Kudugunta, Sneha, Stella, Romina, Dev, Sunipa, Bastings, Jasmijn
Misgendering is the act of referring to someone in a way that does not reflect their gender identity. Translation systems, including foundation models capable of translation, can produce errors that result in misgendering harms. To measure the extent of such potential harms when translating into and out of English, we introduce a dataset, MiTTenS, covering 26 languages from a variety of language families and scripts, including several traditionally underpresented in digital resources. The dataset is constructed with handcrafted passages that target known failure patterns, longer synthetically generated passages, and natural passages sourced from multiple domains. We demonstrate the usefulness of the dataset by evaluating both dedicated neural machine translation systems and foundation models, and show that all systems exhibit errors resulting in misgendering harms, even in high resource languages.
A Survey on the Applications of Frontier AI, Foundation Models, and Large Language Models to Intelligent Transportation Systems
Shoaib, Mohamed R., Emara, Heba M., Zhao, Jun
This survey paper explores the transformative influence of frontier AI, foundation models, and Large Language Models (LLMs) in the realm of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), emphasizing their integral role in advancing transportation intelligence, optimizing traffic management, and contributing to the realization of smart cities. Frontier AI refers to the forefront of AI technology, encompassing the latest advancements, innovations, and experimental techniques in the field, especially AI foundation models and LLMs. Foundation models, like GPT-4, are large, general-purpose AI models that provide a base for a wide range of applications. They are characterized by their versatility and scalability. LLMs are obtained from finetuning foundation models with a specific focus on processing and generating natural language. They excel in tasks like language understanding, text generation, translation, and summarization. By leveraging vast textual data, including traffic reports and social media interactions, LLMs extract critical insights, fostering the evolution of ITS. The survey navigates the dynamic synergy between LLMs and ITS, delving into applications in traffic management, integration into autonomous vehicles, and their role in shaping smart cities. It provides insights into ongoing research, innovations, and emerging trends, aiming to inspire collaboration at the intersection of language, intelligence, and mobility for safer, more efficient, and sustainable transportation systems. The paper further surveys interactions between LLMs and various aspects of ITS, exploring roles in traffic management, facilitating autonomous vehicles, and contributing to smart city development, while addressing challenges brought by frontier AI and foundation models. This paper offers valuable inspiration for future research and innovation in the transformative domain of intelligent transportation.
Synthetic Data Generation Framework, Dataset, and Efficient Deep Model for Pedestrian Intention Prediction
Riaz, Muhammad Naveed, Wielgosz, Maciej, Romera, Abel Garcia, Lopez, Antonio M.
Pedestrian intention prediction is crucial for autonomous driving. In particular, knowing if pedestrians are going to cross in front of the ego-vehicle is core to performing safe and comfortable maneuvers. Creating accurate and fast models that predict such intentions from sequential images is challenging. A factor contributing to this is the lack of datasets with diverse crossing and non-crossing (C/NC) scenarios. We address this scarceness by introducing a framework, named ARCANE, which allows programmatically generating synthetic datasets consisting of C/NC video clip samples. As an example, we use ARCANE to generate a large and diverse dataset named PedSynth. We will show how PedSynth complements widely used real-world datasets such as JAAD and PIE, so enabling more accurate models for C/NC prediction. Considering the onboard deployment of C/NC prediction models, we also propose a deep model named PedGNN, which is fast and has a very low memory footprint. PedGNN is based on a GNN-GRU architecture that takes a sequence of pedestrian skeletons as input to predict crossing intentions.
Relying on the Unreliable: The Impact of Language Models' Reluctance to Express Uncertainty
Zhou, Kaitlyn, Hwang, Jena D., Ren, Xiang, Sap, Maarten
As natural language becomes the default interface for human-AI interaction, there is a critical need for LMs to appropriately communicate uncertainties in downstream applications. In this work, we investigate how LMs incorporate confidence about their responses via natural language and how downstream users behave in response to LM-articulated uncertainties. We examine publicly deployed models and find that LMs are unable to express uncertainties when answering questions even when they produce incorrect responses. LMs can be explicitly prompted to express confidences, but tend to be overconfident, resulting in high error rates (on average 47%) among confident responses. We test the risks of LM overconfidence by running human experiments and show that users rely heavily on LM generations, whether or not they are marked by certainty. Lastly, we investigate the preference-annotated datasets used in RLHF alignment and find that humans have a bias against texts with uncertainty. Our work highlights a new set of safety harms facing human-LM interactions and proposes design recommendations and mitigating strategies moving forward.